Books by Gary Graybill

Monday, July 27, 2015

Racisim in Our Time

I
have been hearing a lot about how this country is still a racist nation
that suppresses minorities and prevents them from equal opportunities
in life. Six years ago, when we elected a black President, the talk
was about how far we had come in doing away with racism. So what's up? Why are we now back to being so full of "white supremacists"?Well, we aren't -and
racism while it still exists is simply not the problem nor as wide
spread as many of our politicians, political activists and prominent
voices in minority communities would have us think. In fact, it is those
very voices that contribute to the problem and keep racism alive
-especially in the minority communities.

What's more, they know it and do it on purpose because it serves their purposes.One
very good example of this is the man whom President Obama chose to
listen to while a member of his congregation in Chicago for many years,
Reverend Wright. While in Washington one Sunday to preach, the reverend
said a few things that make my point very well.Wright
said that America’s elite universities infect African-Americans with
“white racist DNA.” “Take a baby born an African, as an African in the
oven,” he said, using Malcolm X’s saying “just because a cat has kittens
in the oven, that doesn’t make them biscuits” as a reference point for
his riff. “Take that baby him or her away from the African mother, away
from the African community, away from the African experience … and put
them Africans at the breasts of Yale, Harvard, University of Chicago,
those trinity schools, UCLA or U.C. Berkeley. Turn them into biscuits
then they’ll get that alien DNA all up inside their brain and they will
turn on their own people in defense of the ones who are keeping their
own people under oppression.” “There is white racist DNA running through
the synapses of their under-brain tissue,” he continued. ‘They will
kill their own kind, defend the enemies of their kind or anyone who is
perceived to be the enemy of the milky white way of life.”Now I ask you, is that "hate speech" or what?

Why
is he even allowed, let alone invited and encouraged, to preach that
tripe? Because keeping racism alive and using it as a tool to frighten
minority communities and justify the bad behavior of some of the people
in those communities, serves political purposes. It is as simple as
that. People listen to, and buy into, this nonsense not because it is
true, but because they want to.

Ever since the civil rights
movement gained momentum in the 60's, talk about how the "Lilly White"
racists are oppressing the minority communities (especially the black
and Hispanic communities) has fed the flames by scaring those
communities into supporting those who benefit most by the rhetoric
-people like Reverend Wright.Was racism a major problem in this country? Yes it was and for most of the first 200 years of our existence. Were minorities suppressed and racist attitudes used to justify that suppression? Yes, no question about it. Does racism still exist and is it still a problem? Yes,
but it has changed. Today there are far more radical racists in the
minority communities than anywhere else and they are far more likely to
act out than anybody else
because of it. And it's not going to go away until the true nature of
modern racism is recognized and the people taking advantage of it are
scorned and forced into obscurity by their own communities.

Politicians
who play 'the race card' must be called out on it, every time, until it
becomes politically harmful for those politicians to use it. We
had made great strides in combating and suppressing racism in this
country -but we have gone backwards. Not because the majority of people in
all communities have suddenly become racist again -but because we have allowed those who keep it alive for their own selfish interests to keep it alive.
Until racist rhetoric, such as Reverend Wright's sermon, are
discouraged instead of encouraged, and people who make such statements
are confronted and called out on it, it will continue to plague us as a
nation.

Today's Reflection:

You know you're ugly when it comes time for group pictures and they always hand you the camera...